Cason: Ventura County caught up in raw politics

Read all about it: Ventura County is giving raw milk drinkers a raw deal.

"Ventura County on a raw milk rampage," declared a blogger on naturalnews.com. His post cites the county's "agenda to destroy all raw milk operations. ..."

In case this raw milk shake-up has not been on your media menu, here's the back story.

The Ventura County District Attorney's Office is prosecuting Santa Paula farmer Sharon Palmer, who has been dubbed one of the Rawesome Three. Palmer was charged last year in a criminal conspiracy to traffic unpasteurized milk through the Venice-based Rawesome food club after California health officials raided the co-op for selling unlicensed products. You read that right: trafficking, not in munitions, but moo juice.

While in a Los Angeles courtroom in March answering to those charges, Palmer and James Stewart — another of the Rawesome Three — were arrested on a warrant from Ventura County. Each was charged with multiple felony counts of fraud and theft related to the purchase of Palmer's Wheeler Canyon Road ranch.

Although the Ventura County case revolves around real estate and bank fraud, Palmer's lawyer told reporters he believes it's another salvo in the war on raw milk.

Or as a blogger put it: "drummed-up, fabricated charges against James Stewart and Sharon Palmer in an attempt to destroy their reputations and throw them in the slammer. And that's just the beginning. Emboldened by their false authority, California bureaucrats now believe they have Godlike powers and can rule over the people with unlimited power."

It is legal to sell raw milk in California, although this cottage-cheese industry is highly regulated. I should point out it is legal to sell medical marijuana through dispensaries in this state, but we all know how that plays out.

Other states have declared a total whiteout, banning all raw milk sales. Federal law forbids its transportation across state lines, which puts it in the same category as dead bodies, fireworks and 'gators.

Mark McAfee, who runs Organic Pastures in Fresno, holds state permits and sells his unprocessed milk in Ventura County at Lassen's and Sprouts grocery stores.

It also is legal for McAfee to supply raw dairy products to buyers clubs, including the Cream of the Co-op in Ventura.

But McAfee says that hasn't stopped the Ventura County Environmental Health Division from swooping in on a food club run by two Ventura moms.

Holly Mericle told me the co-op received a phone call from the health division about six weeks ago, shortly after Palmer's arrest. That might seem more than just coincidence, but Mericle believes Palmer's issues have nothing to do with her co-op.

The health official strongly encouraged Mericle and her business partner to stop distributing raw milk to the co-op's 60 to 70 members. The women are hardly milk magnates. They move about 80 gallons a week.

During that conversation, Mericle told me, the official brought up the possibility of regulating the co-op as a retail store as a way of shutting it down.

Frightened her home would be raided, Mericle contacted McAfee, who intervened on Cream of the Co-op's behalf with health officials.

The situation, said Mericle, appears to be sorted out.

"We seemed to have come to an understanding with the health department," said Mericle, a mother of two and full-time homemaker.

My phone calls to Ventura County Environmental Health were not returned.

McAfee says raw milk drinkers are not at the hippie-dippy fringes of our society.

Public health officials will tell you it's safer to drink milk that has been heated to kill potentially lethal bacteria. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention links two deaths to consumption of raw dairy products in the decade ending in 2009.

Raw milk advocates have made friends with the beverage's bacteria. They say the little buggers actually improve conditions such as lactose intolerance, asthma and allergies by enriching the fauna in our overly sanitized modern guts.

Palmer's case has gone mainstream, recently capturing the attention of New Yorker magazine, which declares raw milk the new pot. Except, the article points out, it's easier to get a gram of marijuana than a gallon of unprocessed milk.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's biggest applause line at a recent rally came when he declared, if elected, he would relax restrictions on drinking raw milk.

McAfee says raw milk's strongest allies are moms like Holly Mericle.

"Don't mess with a mom. They are my warrior advocates," he said.

You've got to give it to these raw milk crusaders. They are not easily cowed.